


Aeons

by Aurora077



Series: Communication [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, Caring, Crying, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Grief, Hope, Hurt, Loss, Love, Mistakes, New York Special, Sad, Self-Reflection, angsty, new york spoilers, partial comfort, poor communication, post New York, slight S3 spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:42:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26690830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aurora077/pseuds/Aurora077
Summary: Marinette hadn’t time to process everything that happened when her best friend walked out of her life. After the battle however, she had nothing but time.Post NY SpecialDisclaimer: I own nothing but the plot
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Plagg, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Tikki
Series: Communication [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1942273
Comments: 6
Kudos: 67





	Aeons

She’d screwed up. She knew it when it happened, but it was only now, lying on her hotel bed after one of the most exhausting battles of her career, that she realised just how _much_ she had screwed up. 

For a few, world-shattering moments, he was gone. It may have been a minute or an hour, but to Ladybug… to _Marinette_ , it felt like aeons. 

She let out a wet, derisive laugh. Who tells their partner they don’t trust them in the _middle_ of a battle? Her, clearly. And then he wasn’t her partner anymore and she could hear nothing but her own pounding heartbeat and a loud ringing in her head. 

_I renounce you_ echoed over and over again. She had **_lost him_ **.

She never meant for that to happen. Hadn’t seen it coming at all. After all, what was Ladybug without Chat Noir?   
Nothing.

She was _nothing_ without him. How was she supposed to go on?

He had his flaws, sure. They both did (she was currently starkly aware of hers). But he was the one who lightened the load on her shoulders. She was often annoyed at him when he joked in the wrong timing, but without him to keep things light, her heavy thoughts would have overwhelmed her. And though she hated when he sacrificed himself for her, she knew he would never stop. He was always throwing himself into danger for _her_ . To protect _her_. Even when he had transformed that day, his first concern was Marinette (she assumed he was nearby, how else would he know to look for her?). Granted he didn’t know it was her, but she counted it anyway. 

She couldn’t recall how she got back to the hotel. She’d moved as if in a daze. When Alya told her to go after Adrien, she did. But somehow it felt insignificant. She should have gone after Chat. Screw identities, she was the Guardian now wasn’t she? She should have gone after him and apologised for making him feel like a failure. Because he wasn’t.

He was her rock. 

And yes, he’d screwed up but so did she.

It was clear he hadn’t expected to be leaving Paris. He’d have said something to her when they met. She was being unfair to him. But seeing Paris being destroyed and knowing she couldn’t do anything for anyone who would have been hurt in the attack stung. And she took it out on him. 

She sobbed loudly, not bothering to hide her tears as her roommates were all out celebrating. She was lucky they just thought that she was bummed that Adrien left. And she was, but at the moment it wasn’t her main concern. 

No, her main concern was figuring out how on Earth she would ever be able to make this up to her partner. She wasn’t sure how she would face him after this. They’d worked well enough together but that was a life or death situation.Once she was back in Paris she would have to find a way to properly apologise to him. Her tears were hot on her face and she was getting snot all over her pillow but she couldn’t bring herself to care.

Tikki nuzzled her making soft sounds of comfort. 

She didn’t think she deserved it. 

The panic of seeing that monster destroying Paris while they were waiting on her, expecting her to come and save them….to fix the destruction. And she wasn’t there. She couldn’t do anything. At the time all she was thinking of was that he’d lied to her and now things were irreparable and _it was all_ _~~his~~ ~~her~~ _ _his fault_ !. She’d lashed out at him and hurt him. Which made things almost irreparable with _them_. 

She had no idea how Aeon had convinced him to come back. She was utterly and pathetically grateful to the android. It should have been her facing her partner and bringing him back his miraculous but, aside from the fact that she didn’t know his identity, she was too much of a coward . She didn’t know if she could bear his rejection of it a second time (and remembering the despair on his face when she told him she didn’t trust him, well, he would be well within his rights to refuse to take it back). _Plagg_ wouldn’t have been able to bear his rejection either. Tikki said she’d never seen the black kwami so serious...so sad. 

Plagg loved Adrien. That much was obvious to Tikki. Marinette didn’t know Chat’s identity so she had no idea how much Plagg meant to him and how much he in turn meant to Plagg. Renouncing the miraculous was probably the hardest thing in the world for Adrien. But he’d done it because he didn’t want to cause Ladybug trouble. 

“I don’t want to hurt anyone, least of all you,” he had said. Tikki knew now more than ever just how much he loved her charge. Marinette said he’d made his choice, but she had no idea how hard a choice it would have been. And though Aeon was not human, she was close enough. Chat’s cataclysm destroyed her. Tikki could only imagine how that would have affected him. He was after all, still a child. And taking a life despite it being non-human and reversed...well...she was glad he had Plagg back, because the poor boy would need someone in his corner. 

She didn’t mention this to Marinette. She was already beating herself up about her actions so Tikki didn’t add fuel to the flame. Marinette knew she had messed up and deeply hurt her partner so the kwami would simply be there for her while she cried out her regrets and her grief. 

Because it _was_ grief. 

For a few long moments she had lost her partner, and she didn’t get any time to truly process those emotions before being thrown back into battle. 

Tikki couldn’t help but feel relieved despite Marinette’s sorrow. Because if she had bottled up those emotions they would have become toxic. She needed to feel them and grapple with what happened, a thing that could not happen in France because of Hawkmoth’s insidious presence. It had been way too long since her holder could fully express her emotions. And express them Marinette did. She’d been crying for an hour already. Hard, wracking sobs that tore through her and left her body shaking, throat raw and eyes swollen. 

But Tikki had to make sure she didn’t spiral any more. At the rate she was going she’d be dehydrated and too exhausted to function the next day. Floating over to the nightstand she picked up the water bottle and brought it over.

“There there Marinette, it will all work out,” Tikki said, patting her face softly and passing her the water bottle. “Drink.”

“Will it?” she sniffled, “How can you be so sure?” Marinette did not feel like drinking however Tikki’s expression was kind but firm so she reluctantly did. She hadn’t realised how parched she’d been.

“Because you’re a team. He didn’t come back for New York, he came back for _you_.”

“How could you possibly know that Tikki? Why would he come back for me after the way I treated him.” 

_‘Because he loves you,’_ Tikki thought.

“Chat knows you better than you think,” she said instead, “He has his own guilt to deal with and he knows you did as well. You both made mistakes and he has never held it against you. He won’t start now.” 

“He _left_ me Tikki!” she said, her lower lip wobbling again. Her voice broke, “He left...and it was all my fault.”

Marinette had run out of tears by this point, but her eyes burned. Her guilt and her fear were eating at her. 

“I thoug- *hic* thought I’d never see him again.” 

Tikki’s eyes melted in understanding.

Marinette couldn’t believe her eyes when Aeon had come back with Chat in tow. She didn’t even think. She ran to him and held him close. If they didn’t have to fight she felt sure she would have clung to him for ages. But they had a battle to win and then Chat had to leave. She didn’t even get to apologise.

“Tikki, I *yawn* I have to…” her eyes drooped, “to apmswm”

Exhaustion finally catching up with her, she mumbled incoherently before falling asleep. Tikki sighed and tucked herself next to her, happy that Marinette was able to get some much needed emotional purging, because once back in Paris she’d have to hold everything inside again. She was even more glad that she didn’t have to persuade her to apologise. Seems like she realised it on her own. 

She hoped that Plagg helped Chat to work through his feelings before he arrived in Paris. Because he had to be a lot more emotionally scarred than her own charge and he too deserved to feel his feelings without the threat of Hawkmoth turning him into a villain. 

She was worried about these new developments with Hawkmoth but that could wait until the class trip was over. There was no need to bother Marinette with it now. First, she’d let the kids work things out between them. It was imperative that they learn to communicate better. Though personally, she thought they’d learned their lesson.


End file.
